Defying Vichy by Robert Pike

Author:Robert Pike [Pike, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub

The Maquis and Sabotage

As a civilian agent for the FTP, Lucien Cournil continued his work in propaganda dissemination, as well as recruitment. However, the focus of that role changed in the early months of 1944 when he was told he should now channel newcomers as there were too many men in the Maquis for them to be effective. He began a process of signing up interested parties and sending some to safe houses or training camps, telling others that they were not needed at that time. Like many other non-Maquis-based résistants, he also took part in small, armed night-time operations in and around his home commune of Terrasson. He was in close contact with Dr Pierre Daunois, a leader of one of the very first Maquis groups in the Terrassonais. Cournil’s operations often consisted of minor sabotage, further distribution of tracts or simply passing necessary information along the line. Those who chose to become a légal usually held down full-time employment during the day while carrying out dangerous operations at night.

On one of Cournil’s missions, on the evening of 9 March 1944, he received a bullet to the leg. He didn’t see who fired it, nor whether it was one of Adolphe Denoix’s local miliciens.35 In a serious condition, he was hidden for several days then transported to the hospital in Clairvivre, where he was cared for by Dr Fontaine and his team. René Fontaine (alias Colonel Elliott) was part of the hospital staff from Strasbourg that had relocated to Périgueux in 1939 and his – and his team’s – medical expertise saved many Maquis lives. Once partially recovered, Cournil returned home to continue his work but in the last week of March his mother was visited by a local gendarme: ‘I don’t know what your boy is doing but take my word for it he had better stop it and get out of here.’36 At the end of the week the dreadful events of the Brehmer operation took place in which Resistance members and Jewish families were killed or deported. Cournil’s activities were obviously known about – at least by the gendarmerie – so he was forced to flee, spending several weeks hiding on a farm in nearby Villac while continuing his Resistance work.

Cournil’s childhood friend, four years his senior, Roger Ranoux (‘Hercule’) returned to the Dordogne in December 1943, having sought permission to bring his Lucien Sampaix group with him. A banquet was served in his honour in fields not far from the main Périgueux–Terrasson road and the Ranoux family home in Tranche, near Le Lardin. Not only were the maquisards present for a meal that included a stuffed pig, but so too were the many légaux supporting the Maquis of both the FTP and AS, for whom Ranoux had developed huge admiration.37 A gathering of more than 10038 was not advisable given the climate, especially so near the main road between Périgueux and Brive, where Germans and miliciens were routinely patrolling, but it was a memorable evening for all involved.

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